Qatar announces fourth MERS death

An expatriate living in Qatar has died of MERS, bringing to four the number of deaths in the Gulf state from the coronavirus, health authorities said on Friday.

The 48-year-old had other pre-existing health problems, Qatar’s Supreme Council of Health in a statement.

It was the second death reported in Qatar this week. On Tuesday the emirate reported the death of a 61-year-old expatriate.

Two other deaths were reported in early September.

In addition, a Qatari man died in a London hospital in late June after contracting the virus.

The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that it has been notified of 155 laboratory-confirmed cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus worldwide so far, including 64 deaths, most of them in Qatar’s larger neighbour Saudi Arabia.

Experts are struggling to understand the disease, for which there is no vaccine.